(The Cohen name is derived from a name for “priest” in Hebrew, and many persons of that name claim to be descendants of priestly families that officiated in the temple in Jerusalem. Indeed, a particular Y-chromosome identified with many Cohen descendants was also found recently in an East African tribe that claimed descent from priests who had fled Jerusalem around the time of the Babylonian Conquest in 586 BC. )

Cohen early on endorsed Barack Obama, but he is still a Jew, so apparently he has more devotion to Obama than he does to Jesus.

The other element in Cohen’s statement that was supremely irrational was his attempt to smear anyone who is “a governor” with the guilt of Pontius Pilate. It’s not like those who are elected governors in the United States have any kind of ideological or moral connection to a Roman procurator who was appointed by an emperor and the Senate of Rome to rule over a conquered population, or that modern governors hold up Pilate as some kind of admired figure.

Besides, what does Cohen’s statement say about former governors Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, let alone current Democratic governors Bill Richardson and Janet Napolitano and Ed Rendell? Does he think Democrats should eschew running for the office of governor, because it is inherently tinged by Pilate’s legacy, while it is OK to be a senator, among the body that is the historical heir of the body that appointed many procurators like Pilate? Indeed, a similar comparison might be made between the Sanhedrin, which tried and condemned Jesus as being worthy of death, and the modern Senate.

Basically, the entire Democratic political and news media establishment has come unhinged and lost their ability for rational discourse as far as Palin goes. I can only guess that they are so afraid of her appeal to women voters that they feel they have to crush her unequivocally. They have seen the polls, and it is clear that the Republican lead among male voters is also becoming a balance or maybe even a lead among female voters.

So the Democrats resort to attacks based on her religion, only demonstrating that they don’t know the language of religious faith, and are foreigners and outsiders trying to convince those on the inside that Palin is somehow apostate. All they are accomplishing is to strengthen the understanding that the Democratic Party is alien to the religious worldview of most Americans. Having Jews tell Christians what to think about other Christians based on the New Testament is just one example of the Democrats’ cluelessness about religion.